by Daniel Uthman and James Crepea, USA TODAY Sports

by Daniel Uthman and James Crepea, USA TODAY Sports

The top three college football teams in the Bowl Championship Series standings and human polls play games against archrivals this week. But one of these is not like the other.

While No. 2 Florida State and No. 3 Ohio State visit rivals who are experiencing uncharacteristic struggles, No. 1 Alabama visits an archrival that is one of the biggest surprises in college football.

Auburn, No. 4 in the BCS standings released Sunday and No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, might represent the biggest obstacle to the Crimson Tide playing for a third consecutive national title. Never in the history of the Iron Bowl have the teams had a higher combined ranking. This season the Tigers are 10-1 and riding a seven-game winning streak. They have made a seven-game improvement in wins from 2012, the biggest turnaround in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

"To have an opportunity like we've put ourselves in - to play against the No. 1 team in the nation and have some things riding on it?" said Ellis Johnson, Auburn's defensive coordinator, "I don't think anybody could have dreamed our football team would have had this opportunity. So we're very lucky and obviously very excited about it and going to have to really play well to have a chance to reap the benefits."

Though Alabama has won four of the last five meetings, Auburn teams with nine or more wins are 8-0 against Alabama since 1997. Saturday's game also will be the fourth instance since 2008 that Southeastern Conference teams ranked in the top four of the BCS will meet in the last week of the regular season or later. Alabama has appeared in each of those games, going 2-1.

"We have been building week-to-week obviously for the next game," Auburn offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee said. "It has worked for our guys. They have done a great job of buying into that and focusing in. That's easier said than done, but we play Alabama and they play us at the end of the year for a reason. It all builds up to this every year."